Last night a really good family friend, John, was nice enough to take me to the Consort Club's annual Royal College of Music performance. This year it featured a truly exceptional concert pianist named Konstantin Lapshin, who is studying piano on a post graduate level and competing internationally on behalf of the college. He played Chopin's Polonaise-Fantaisie and Shumann's Carnaval and....it was beyond words. I'm clearly no where near a classical music connoisseur, but even I could tell this guy was genius. After the performance we had champagne in a drawing room (I know, how fancy) and made our way to our seats. As I got to the table I was shocked, thrilled, and terrified to learn that I was seated next to no other than Konstantin Lapshin and proceeded to short-term hyperventalate over a. the fact that there were a lot of forks, knives, and glasses and b. that I would need to keep up conversation with the performer everyone so admired though I was the person in the room with the least possible knowledge about classical music.
So I took a deep breath, got over the awkwardness, and talked to Konstantin about...well, everything. I pulled every Russian lit. figure I could think of (Dostoevsky and Chekhov, basically) and we somehow discussed what little I remembered of method acting. At one point a woman to his left asked him if he liked The Simpsons (it was relevant at the time) and I found it probably a little too funny that he watched it in Russian. He seemed to be enjoying himself and I actually found the night refreshing. I love that even though we were from totally different cultures and backgrounds we were able to bond over how weird it is adjusting to English accents and I found it especially entertaining that he asked, "do you have a facebook?"
So it was a surprisingly entertaining encounter. Watching experiences change drastically before your eyes and turn out differently than you could ever have predicted really never gets old and I'm happy to keep taking it in with little other than a smirk.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Give us This Day Our Daily Debauchery
Sunday- a day for penance, rest, and faith....for good people. For me and my friends last Sunday was a day of complete and utter debauchery. We'd heard a distant rumor tha
t such a place as "The Church" existed far far away at St. Johns Hill. A place where drunkards from all across the U.K. met at noon every Sunday to worship Dionysus and get their fill of total absurdity whilst dressed in costume and, customarily, highly intoxicated. We awoke at 8:30 sharp, got dressed in clothes no congregation member would appreciate, and took the hike to the elusive, beautiful Church. Upon our arrival we were met with an eyeful of total madness. Be it a huge screen that "candid camera" style displayed pictures of members in the crowd with funny captions underneath or the room full of people dressed as smirfs, air force pilots, mimes, and ancient Greeks, nothing left me anything short of delighted and shocked.
For our entertainment, the stage was enlisted with comedy sketches, musical performances, a stripper, and tomfoolery involving audience members. At the end we got on stage and danced for who knows how long. We got back around 5, I passed out at 7 and considered it a great success. I don't think I could handle this as a new weekly ritual (after all, a few of my new British friends have said it's reserved for the "hardcore") but it was memorable for sure!
t such a place as "The Church" existed far far away at St. Johns Hill. A place where drunkards from all across the U.K. met at noon every Sunday to worship Dionysus and get their fill of total absurdity whilst dressed in costume and, customarily, highly intoxicated. We awoke at 8:30 sharp, got dressed in clothes no congregation member would appreciate, and took the hike to the elusive, beautiful Church. Upon our arrival we were met with an eyeful of total madness. Be it a huge screen that "candid camera" style displayed pictures of members in the crowd with funny captions underneath or the room full of people dressed as smirfs, air force pilots, mimes, and ancient Greeks, nothing left me anything short of delighted and shocked.
For our entertainment, the stage was enlisted with comedy sketches, musical performances, a stripper, and tomfoolery involving audience members. At the end we got on stage and danced for who knows how long. We got back around 5, I passed out at 7 and considered it a great success. I don't think I could handle this as a new weekly ritual (after all, a few of my new British friends have said it's reserved for the "hardcore") but it was memorable for sure!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
My Day Trip to Wales
Thursday night, between a few rounds of karaoke at the International Students Housing bar, I made impromptu plans to go to Wales the following day with my room mate and a couple of her friends. I figure travel costs were decent, Wales always sounded cool, and this is likely one of the best weekends to do this sort of thing. So I woke up at 6, took the coach with them to Cardiff, Wales, and had what turned out to be a really great day! We didn't do anything in particular- looked at the Cardiff Castle, took a lot of pictures of the city streets, had some delicious Darjeeling tea, shopped around a little and got dinner.
The Cardiff Castle was really cool. It's right in the middle of town and surrounded by busy roads but it's extremely well-preserved and blends in with the rest of the city. I don't think the picture I posted here adequately conveys how interesting and consistent the juxtaposition between the new and old is, but it'll have to do. My favorite thing about the city was that old and new buildings existed everywhere, right next to each other and they formed a cohesive aesthetic.
This picture might actually be my favorite that I took because I really like the different angles, as made very easily accessible by interesting architecture. This is of the middle of town, basically the square, which is pretty modern, save for a few buildings and alleyways stemming from various parts. Most of the shops and newer restaurants were behind me when I took this shot, so it's a pretty congested area (though, somehow, you wouldn't know it looking at this photo).
Another thing I really liked about Cardiff was that alleyways of shops literally exist everywhere. They are all partially indoor with glass ceilings so it's bright throughout them. Some have balconies and shop fronts just as though they're outside but they're also cooler and semi- mall like. I'm not sure how old the buildings are but they definitely seemed pretty old, just with modern touches. We had our tea in one of the little shops down this alley, and while it was a tad cramped, it was really cute.
And....that's all I can really think of at the moment. Wales was really cool. I probably wouldn't need to stay there for a long time or anything, but it was a really cute, interesting day trip. I had a lot of fun getting to know new people from my trip and basically just roaming around aimlessly. I think the best way to close this off is another picture I took that wasn't especially relevant but, in my opinion, really cool. So, here goes nothing:
The Cardiff Castle was really cool. It's right in the middle of town and surrounded by busy roads but it's extremely well-preserved and blends in with the rest of the city. I don't think the picture I posted here adequately conveys how interesting and consistent the juxtaposition between the new and old is, but it'll have to do. My favorite thing about the city was that old and new buildings existed everywhere, right next to each other and they formed a cohesive aesthetic.
This picture might actually be my favorite that I took because I really like the different angles, as made very easily accessible by interesting architecture. This is of the middle of town, basically the square, which is pretty modern, save for a few buildings and alleyways stemming from various parts. Most of the shops and newer restaurants were behind me when I took this shot, so it's a pretty congested area (though, somehow, you wouldn't know it looking at this photo).
Another thing I really liked about Cardiff was that alleyways of shops literally exist everywhere. They are all partially indoor with glass ceilings so it's bright throughout them. Some have balconies and shop fronts just as though they're outside but they're also cooler and semi- mall like. I'm not sure how old the buildings are but they definitely seemed pretty old, just with modern touches. We had our tea in one of the little shops down this alley, and while it was a tad cramped, it was really cute.
And....that's all I can really think of at the moment. Wales was really cool. I probably wouldn't need to stay there for a long time or anything, but it was a really cute, interesting day trip. I had a lot of fun getting to know new people from my trip and basically just roaming around aimlessly. I think the best way to close this off is another picture I took that wasn't especially relevant but, in my opinion, really cool. So, here goes nothing:
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